We’re All Trying to Get
To the Same Place!
And you all will succeed! Most folks hold religions that claim to deliver faithful followers to ‘heaven’ or some form of ‘Nirvana’. Some religions claim exclusivity, declaring that followers of other religions will not make it, and other religions allow for followers of other faiths to be included in everlasting bliss.
What is true? If everyone is trying to get to the same place, and if that place is good, will they all succeed?
First, not everyone is trying to get to the same place. Some folks know they are going to hell, and they seem to want it that way. Most folks don’t believe in a literal Hell—or if they do, they believe that a loving, merciful god would never send them there.
More folks believe in a ‘heaven’ than in a hell, and far more folks believe in a ‘heaven’ than in a god. Not many hold strongly to a ‘no heaven, no hell’ annihilation concept, especially when they are in danger of dying.
The Bible is one of the faiths that is exclusive. It holds,
Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that this man does stand here before you whole by the name of Messiah Yeshua [Salvation] of Nazareth whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead—even by Him. 11This is the stone that was set at nothing by you builders, Who is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there salvation in any other! For there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
If the Bible is true, other faiths (including some ‘Christian’ faiths) that hold other ways and means of Salvation (from sin and unto everlasting life) are wrong.
If all the folks trying to get to the same place will succeed, religion is basically useless, except as it structures societies.
Most folks comfort themselves in the certainty that they and their loved ones are going to a heaven. Only a rare funeral includes a statement that the deceased was damned. ‘Christian’ preachers often pronounce the dead in bliss, in the arms of Jesus.
The Bible states,
Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 There is a way that is straight to the faces of a man, and the ways of death are her afterward!
The way appears straight, but it leads only to ways going to death.
Messiah Yeshua (Salvation, transliterated ‘Jesus’) warned the Israelis who will live during the Tribulation,
Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the narrow gate! For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in there. 14Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads unto life, and there are few who find it.
This text must be taken literally, and it refers to Mount Zion near the end of the Tribulation (as do all the surrounding texts). All the instructions of the God of the Bible are very specific.
Religion is quite profitable. Folks donate a lot of money to all religions each year. Clerics and priests of the many religions can promise the dead almost anything; once a person is dead, it is rather hard to return and tell the cleric or priest, “You were dead wrong!” Religion offers no money-back guarantees.
Some forms of ‘Christianity’ spend much time telling folks ‘how to get saved’, and give them guarantees that if they confess certain things and pray a certain prayer, meaning it in their hearts, they are saved. They appeal to folks fearing Hell or desiring heaven when they die, and they speak as if they have certain knowledge from God about a person’s salvational status. If their faiths are contrasted to Abraham’s faith listed in Genesis, the contrasts will abound.
Knowing and caring about only a few texts never shows a love for the word of any god, but contempt. Biblical Saints valued every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Biblical God. The Bible declares,
Romans 10:17 Faith is by hearkening, and hearkening is by the word of God.
A person who claims to hold the Biblical faith claims to have hearkened (heard and acted). Even the hearkening itself is by the Word of God. When did these vendors of cheap ‘salvation’ who know practically nothing of the Word of God ever hearken? They claim to know the way of salvation; they give the ways of death to suckers. They give security to folks supposedly trying to get to ‘the same place.’ Only, they don’t really know where they themselves are going.
The Bible is the most ignored popular book in the world. If the proportion of professionals in the Bible who actually know and understand the book were calculated, the number would be shockingly small. A person can sound educated in the pulpit, but let a child ask a reasonable Biblical question, and few Biblically educated folks on the earth will know the answer. No profession on earth has such a low standard as the religion profession. Consider the Biblical caliber of the normal Sunday School or Sabbath School teacher as an example.
Is Truth hard to find?
Romans 1:18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in unrighteousness 19because what is known of God is manifest among them; for God manifested to them! 20For the invisible things of Him from creation of the world—both His eternal power and divinity—are perceived unto their being without excuse, being understood by the things made.
If God has made Truth, His eternal power, and His divinity obviously clear (manifest), has He hidden the way of life? Many want to go to a heaven; few care about what happens after death, though some like to discuss it. Most just don’t like the Biblical God, and many view His description with bitterness. Wherever they are trying to get, it isn’t in the same place with the Biblical God. Yet, strangely, if the Biblical record is true, all folks in the Lake of Fire and Sulfur (‘Hell’) will always be right there with this very God, feeling the intensity of His wrath! They will not avoid Him, but will ‘enjoy’ the Hell of His company throughout time.
Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, 10the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God that is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation! And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb [referring to Yeshua]. 11And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever! And they who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name, have no rest day nor night.
This is the same place that all are ‘trying to get to’ if they will not receive the love of the Truth:
2 Thessalonians 2:10b They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, 12so that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Instead of attempting to arrive at a place, wouldn’t the wise choice be to find the true God?
If you don’t know how, try obtaining a better translation of the Bible (like the King James Version, that uses the more specific forms of pronouns). Read Genesis very carefully, asking many questions in each verse, writing your questions and proposed answers if you are able. You will learn much by your questions, and you will find the answers if you continue with patience. Most folks are in a hurry; they are in a damned hurry.